At the 2016 Fall Dinner hosted by Vermont Women in Higher Education (VWHE) on October 11, 2o16 at St. Michael’s College, Naila Baloch, Associate Chaplain and Muslim Advisor at Middlebury College’s Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, will be the keynote speaker. Naila brings to her work a focus on building strong, inclusive communities, and in her role she facilitates Islamic and interfaith programming and retreats and also advises the Islamic Society of Middlebury College. Naila earned her bachelor’s degree from Williams College, where she studied astrophysics and comparative religion; her master’s in theological studies from Harvard Divinity School, where she specialized in Islamic ministry; and a graduate certificate from the University of Spiritual Healing and Sufism in Pope Valley, California, where her focus was on counseling from a spiritual perspective. She started her training at Harvard Divinity School as their first female, Muslim ministry student to prepare for positions of religious service. In 2015, Naila received the Carol A. Moore Scholarship from Vermont Women in Higher Education to continue her training in mental health counseling at the University of Massachusetts. Congratulations Naila!